12/17/2007 ;Amtech Systems Inc., a global supplier of production and automation systems and related supplies for the manufacture of solar cells, semiconductors, and silicon wafers, today announced that its subsidiary, Tempress Systems Inc., has received an additional $8.9 million in orders for diffusion processing systems from the solar cell industry.
12/17/2007 December 16, 2007 - At this year's IEDM, NEC and NEC Electronics unveiled new design technology to optimize ultrashallow-junction channel structures in 32nm-and beyond LSIs, as well as a new composite film to enable a "full low-k" Cu interconnect structure with k reduced nearly a third compared to conventional barrier dielectrics.
12/14/2007 The Spectrum S-920 series of scalable dispensing platforms adapts to the needs and requirements of high-volume microelectronics manufacturing and PCB assembly such as flip chip and CSP underfill. The platforms feature technologically advanced and integrated software and hardware control based on Fluidmove XP software with process control features.
12/14/2007 The TC-5121 thermally conductive compound is designed for mid-range electronic systems, such as desktop computers and graphic processing units. The new compound reportedly provides a formula less likely than other thermal materials to scratch heat-sink lids.
12/14/2007 The TrueScale PP40 wafer probe card is designed to enable high-efficiency and high parallelism wafer probing on advanced wire bond logic and SoC devices. By supporting pad pitches down to 40 microns, this probe card allows IC manufacturers to shrink the size of their test pads, enabling some users to retain a single-row pad layout.
12/14/2007 The Loctite 3508 one-component epoxy is pre-applied to the board at the corners of the CSP pad site using a standard dispensing system. Unlike capillary flow underfills that require dedicated equipment and subsequent process steps, this epoxy can be applied in-line with existing capital equipment with curing taking place during the normal solder reflow process.
12/14/2007 by Gail Flower, editor-in-chief
On December 4, 2007, the New England iMAPS Chapter met at the Westford Regency in Westford, MA for a dinner meeting and presentation. Vincent Caprio, executive director of NY NanoBusiness Alliance covered Nanobusiness Matters: Driving Quality of Life and Economic Progress in the 21st Century.
12/14/2007 December 14, 2007 - At this week's IEDM, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. said it has built a gallium nitride (GaN) power transistor on a sapphire substrate with ultrahigh breakdown voltage of 10,400V, more than 5X higher than the top mark for other such devices.
12/14/2007 December 14, 2007 - At this week's IEDM, Fujitsu discussed its recent progress in developing multilayer interconnect technology for logic LSI devices at and beyond the 32nm node, and its work with a new resistive RAM (ReRAM) memory as a possible alternative to flash for embedded applications.
12/14/2007 by George A. Riley, Contributing Editor
Nanotechnology is alive and creeping closer in university and industry research labs. Last month's Boston meeting of the Materials Research Society included 91 sessions with the term "nano" somewhere in the title. While most addressed material characteristics and laboratory techniques, two focused on carbon nanotube (CNT) large scale integration (LSI) device interconnections and related issues.
12/14/2007 Caliper Life Sciences Inc. has announced the Zephyr SPE, a benchtop tool designed to automate solid phase extraction (SPE). It features a 96-well plate format, an SPE-specific software interface designed for ease of use, and streamlined sample prep.
12/14/2007 Designed for ease of use, Agilent Technologies' Pico Image is a modular software package that analyzes atomic force microscope (AFM) image data and generates dynamic, highly detailed surface analysis reports. The software has been integrated into the platform for Agilent's complete line of AFMs.
12/14/2007 Microvision Inc., a U.S. developer of light scanning technologies for display and imaging products, has signed a development agreement with an unnamed European supplier of automotive and industrial technologies.
12/14/2007 December 3, 2007 -- /PRNewswire/ -- MILPITAS, CA -- Celerity, Inc. announced today the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a permanent injunction in Celerity's patent infringement suit against Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc., and its subsidiary Ultra Clean Technology Systems and Service, Inc.
12/14/2007 December 3, 2007 -- /PRNewswire/ -- MENLO PARK, CA -- Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Ultra Clean Technology Systems and Service, Inc. (UCT), announced today that an injunction has been entered by the court with respect to patent infringement claims brought against UCT by Celerity, Inc.
12/14/2007 December 3, 2007 -- /PRNewswire/ -- TOKYO, JAPAN -- The leading manufacturers of semiconductor equipment project 2007 sales to reach $41.68 billion, according to the year-end edition of the SEMI Capital Equipment Consensus Forecast, released by SEMI at the annual SEMICON Japan exposition.
12/13/2007 ; The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) today hailed the transistor as the greatest invention of the 20th century. The first working transistor was created 60 years ago, on December 16, 1947, at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey. The inventors — William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain — were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956 for their invention.
12/13/2007 The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed an imaging system to quickly map the mechanical properties of materials -- how stiff or stretchy they are, for example -- at billionths of a meter. The new tool offers a cost-effective way to design and characterize mixed nanoscale materials.
12/13/2007 Oxford Instruments has received an order for nine process tool systems worth more than £2.5m ($5m) to equip a new cleanroom facility at the University of Southampton in the UK, the company announced in a news release.
12/13/2007 ; Gen Sys GmbH, a provider of software for optimization of microstructure fabrication processes, today announced it has signed an agreement with the Fraunhofer Institute of Integrated Systems and Device Technology (IISB) for the development and licensing of advanced 3-D resist modeling techniques for e-beam and proximity lithography.
Caliper Life Sciences Inc. has announced the Zephyr SPE, a benchtop tool designed to automate solid phase extraction (SPE). It features a 96-well plate format, an SPE-specific software interface designed for ease of use, and streamlined sample prep.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed an imaging system to quickly map the mechanical properties of materials -- how stiff or stretchy they are, for example -- at billionths of a meter. The new tool offers a cost-effective way to design and characterize mixed nanoscale materials.